Sharing a document that cannot be downloaded

April 05, 2023
DD Planet

Sometimes we want to upload a document publicly and don’t want someone to download it, i.e. we want it to remain viewable only. Of course, one way could be that we use some private software that provides such an option or uses DRM but we all know that it’s not easily available to us and might not be free of cost.

Here are the tips on how you can do it:

1. Upload your document in pdf or doc or any supportable format at Google Drive using your Google Account or Google Mail id.
2. Click ‘My Drive’ and upload your file.
3. Right click on the uploaded file and click ‘Share’, then select ‘Anyone with the link”. You may also specify here “Restricted” if you want to share your document with just a few people or groups.
4. Click ‘editing’ icon on the top right side of the popup window.
5. Uncheck both ‘Editors can change permissions and share’ and ‘Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy’.
6. Copy the link of your file by clicking ‘Copy Link’ on the bottom left.
7. Open the document in another window or tab in a browser.
8. Click three bars, select ‘Embed’ and copy this Embed script in your html file on any site. For example, you can check the following document at DD Planet.
9. You can also change the width and height in the Embed code as you desire.

The above steps 8 and 9 are required only if you wish a link to be available on any website of your choice in html.